**5. Advantages of vertical farming**

Despommier mentioned a number of environmental and social advantages in his book called "The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century." The advantages are summarized below [15]:


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*Implication of Urban Agriculture and Vertical Farming for Future Sustainability*

• As the crops in a vertical farm are grown under a controlled environment, they are safe from extreme weather conditions such as droughts, hail, and floods.

• Hydroponic growing techniques help in water conservation by using about

• Indoor farming reduces or eliminates the use of tractors and other large farm equipment that are commonly used on outdoor farms, thus reducing the burning of fossil fuel. According to Despommier, large-scale vertical farming could

result in a significant reduction in air pollution and in CO2 emissions.

• Vertical farming is people friendly. Some hazards that can be avoided in vertical farming are accidents while operating heavy farming equipment and

Apart from so many advantages, there are many critics of the vertical farming described by the scientists. They claimed that there are a number of problems in vertical farming. The challenges to vertical farming may be summarized as

• Start-up costs are high in order to purchase land in central business districts.

• Production volumes are also not as large as conventional farming and scaling-

• Raising investment capitals and training a skilled workforce are also challenges

Scientists explored the motivations for urban gardening in Germany by screening 657 urban gardening project websites and characterized the types of gardeners, cultivation methods, and consumer behavior. The study also highlighted the "terrabioponic smart-garden system" where the plants grow in natural soil and in organic nutrient solution, which may facilitate social transition toward bio economy [16]. Also scientists from the United Kingdom reported that vertical farming system has increased the yield of lettuce per unit area as compared to traditional horizontal hydroponics [17]. Agriculture and food production activities in the cities of Mexico can contribute in reducing carbon footprint by creating green environment and

**Case study 1:** The world's largest indoor vertical farm, AeroFarms, is located in Newark, New Jersey, which grows more than 2 million pounds of greens per year without sunlight, soil or pesticides. Instead of using a huge quantity of water to grow plants, AeroFarms system sprays nutrient-rich mist to the plants. Seeds are sown, germinated, and grown on reusable sheets of cloth and are stretched out over trays stacked vertically. LED lights are used instead of the sun, and the exposure is

controlled depending upon the maturity of the plant [12].

**7. World-wide implementation of urban agriculture/vertical farming**

• The number of crops grown is sometimes less than rural farming.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91133*

exposure to harmful chemicals.

**6. Disadvantages of vertical farming**

up may add cost and complexity.

in vertical farming.

better land use [18].

follows [13]:

70% less water than normal agriculture.

*Implication of Urban Agriculture and Vertical Farming for Future Sustainability DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91133*

